The Cadillac of Readings: The Pyramid Spread

Jean-Claude Flornoy’s book Seeing the World: Tarot Signposts on the Path to Perception (translated from the French by David Vine), features what Flornoy describes as “the cadillac of readings,” and I’m inclined to agree with him. Flornoy was a French artist and tarotist who died in 2011. He was the foremost recreator of the earliest French tarot decks beginning with the Jean Noblet deck (Paris, 1650). His book features a quirky, individualistic interpretation of Marseille-style decks that is worth reading if you want to shake yourself out of many of the Anglo assumptions about Tarot that most of us labor under. Personally I found the book exciting for this very reason. However, what thrilled me most was Flornoy’s introduction to a spread concept I hadn’t seen before that he learned from Parisian Jean Assens. With David Vine’s permission I’m presenting it here. It is very briefly described in the book, focusing only on the layout procedure, so I’ll include my own developing insights into its use.

The Assens-Flornoy Pyramid Spread

Using only the Major Arcana, ask your question, then shuffle and lay out all 22 cards, face down, in the 21-position pyramid layout (see below) beginning on the bottom left. The positions are the same as the Major Arcana laid out in numerical order, but you’ll be putting face down cards from your shuffled deck into each position, in order from 1 to 21 plus one card that lies outside the pyramid.

The final, 22nd, card goes on the right; Flornoy called it the “Outside Card.” You start by interpreting this Outside Card in relation to the question. The next card to be turned over should be the card in the pyramid layout that corresponds to the number of the Outside Card. For instance, if you get 9-Hermit as the Outside Card, then the next card you turn face up will be the card in the 9th position. If that card is 6-Lovers, first you interpret it, and then you turn up the card in the 6th position, and so on, interpreting each card as you go. I call this chaining.* Continue until you turn up The Fool. As The Fool has no number, the reading stops here. Flornoy says that if you need more information you can pull supplemental cards from a second deck (but he doesn’t explain what you do with these). You may reveal, in total, as few as two or three cards or almost the entire Major Arcana! Unrevealed cards are either in their own position or form their own group of mutually linked cards. You don’t look at or read the unrevealed cards at all.

I’ve been obsessively using this spread and have developed a few additions of my own.

Rather than pulling supplemental cards for more information, as Flornoy suggests, I prefer taking the archetypal card’s position into consideration. This is similar to reading an astrological planet in its “house” in a chart. To ascribe uniqueness to each item in the pair I think of the preceding card as asking a question of the card that lands in its position. This will become obvious in the example.

Here’s a reading I did, laid out on top of the Noblet Tarot, which is my own addition to this spread technique. (You don’t need to use a second deck beneath.)

As I was listening to a news program about Donald Trump’s potential legal problems (regarding Manafort and Michael Cohen) I decided to ask what the cards thought of Trump. With 14-Temperance Reversed as the final “Outside Card” I felt Trump was out-of-balance; his temperament or “humors” were askew and that the spread would especially address his temperament problems. Next, I turned over the card in the 14th position and found 15-Devil. I asked the question “What is creating this imbalance?” The Devil seemed to speak of obsession, enslavement, blame and guilt, plus a focus on “upmost materiality” (the latter is the Golden Dawn meaning). Based on my reaction to 15-Devil, I then asked of the next card, “Where does this negativity come from?” and turned up the card in the 15th position, 18-Moon. This card seemed to suggest that Trump is deceiving himself as well as others, arising from deep-seated unconscious instinctual behavior. Turning to the 18th position I asked, “Of what is Trump unconscious?” and got 2-High Priestess Reversed, which said to me that he lacks empathic sensitivity and can’t hear the inner voice of Wisdom (he’s out of touch with what we might call the Feminine).

To reiterate: my addition to this spread technique is to view the preceding card as asking a question of the card that lands in the numerical position (of that preceding card). Think of these two cards as a pair: the earlier card asks a question that the subsequent card responds to. You may want to examine the cards by placing them in pairs. Based on your interpretation of the first card, your intuition suggests a question that it asks of the subsequent card in the chain. For instance:

After considering the meaning of the Outside Card (14-Temperance Reversed), turn one of its meanings into an open-ended question like “What needs to be balanced?” or “Where is there imbalance?” or, in an issue regarding creativity, “What is blocking the creative flow?” The next card in the chain provides a response. Sometimes the second card makes you aware that the question wasn’t phrased quite right. That’s okay, just adjust your question.

15-Devil now poses a question of the card in the 15th position, 18-Moon:

If you wish you can go through the rest of the cards for yourself. I admit I was at first stumped by 19-Sun in the position of 6-Lovers (the Lovers card was reversed and in the position of 5-Hierophant = one’s morals). Upon considering the question, “How is he deceiving others?” I figured The Sun might point to his relationship with his Base (Lovers) who feel he can do no wrong. However, The Sun, featuring a child with a feather in his hair, brought to mind the image of the “Baby Trump” balloon flown in the air during Trump’s trip to the U.K., and I couldn’t help chuckling.

This spread was the first time I turned up more than a half dozen or so cards before reaching The Fool, where I stopped. The only card not revealed turned out to be 17-Star, in its own 17th position. Technically these cards are not to be read, but with The Fool in the 9th-Hermit position and 17-Star unrevealed, it seemed to reiterate the lack of personal insight and integrity in Trump’s psyche that had previously been shown.

I want to note that I was very aware of projecting my own feelings onto the cards as I read them, so the above interpretation in no way represents an objective analysis of Trump, but rather my own perception of him. It was startlingly clear to see my opinions take precedence over any other interpretation of the cards. When reading for myself, I find it is an opportunity to become conscious of my own semi- and un-conscious perceptions of a matter. It is through the Tarot that I’ve learned to see through to many of my own biases and assumptions. But, that’s another discussion.

I believe you can also summarize the spread by reading the cards that were revealed in the order they were laid out – that is, positions 1 to 21 sequentially and by rows—especially since some of your spreads will reveal an entire row or two while leaving most of the other cards unrevealed. The centrality of positions 9, 17 and 21 seem to stand out and may be especially significant, perhaps as “Destiny” or “Wisdom” positions?

This is one way to use all those luscious Major Arcana-only decks. Reversals are optional. Let me know what you think of this spread and any insights you have as to how to interpret it.

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*”Chaining” is a technique used with the 36-card Lenormand Grand Tableau. Toward the end of a Grand Tableau reading you can chain or link cards in a similar manner, starting with the querent’s significator. You determine its position number, find the card having that number, then from its position find the next card, and so on, stopping when you circle back to a card you’ve already read. This chain of cards serves as a kind of confirmation or summary of the whole reading. With The Pyramid Spread it is the entire reading.

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Mary K. Greer has made tarot her life work. Check here for reports of goings-on in the world of tarot and cartomancy, articles on the history and practice of tarot, and materials on other cartomancy decks. Sorry, I no longer write reviews. Contact me HERE.

29 comments

This method of “having one card ask a question of the next one” is one I developed for myself as well, but with a new shuffle between cards. Trying this spread will definitely challenge my limiting beliefs around having to shuffle after identifying each new question, rather than allowing myself to trust the whole process to “work” even when cards are laid out before I have determined what question they will be answering! Thank you for this explanation of the method, and for sharing the answers you got!

Quick reply, cause I am itching to do your spread- I have been a tarot reader in K.C. for 42 years and I am interested in a new technique for the first time in many years- thank you so much for sharing- bye, I am eager to begin.
BLESSED BE

ace of tarot:
I, too, do some readings by drawing a card, speaking about it and then asking a question that arose from it, and drawing a new card for the answer. I first learned this approach from James Wanless. To me, the ‘art of asking questions’ is a major skill of therapeutically-focused readings. Here, though, I am trying to create a stepping stone from one card to the next. Personally I try to use keywords for the card. Occasionally, upon seeing the subsequent card I realize the question needs to be rephrased – but so far not drastically so.

It’s a work in progress, so I hope you will grace us with any approach to this spread that you find helpful.

coinflip,
I’m glad my site has helped you understand tarot, but it is really about discovering your own relationship to them. There are already some great tarot apps. One of my favorites is a series (using different decks) put out by The Fool’s Dog.
Mary

I really enjoy this type of “directed” reading that uses hidden cards and pointers to reveal the narrative flow, and have created a few of my own that use the same approach. Stopping at the Fool reminds me of the Opening of the Key counting technique where you stop as soon as you land back on a card that you already interpreted. Does the Fool receive any special emphasis in the reading or is it just a terminus (in other words, do you ask a question of it from the card that led you there?) I think your additions add value to what is already an elegant spread.

parsifalswheeldivination,
Regarding stopping at the Fool and does his placement have any significance? The instructions for this spread by Flornoy say nothing further about this, which leaves it up to you. Its position points back to the preceding card. If you come up with some special significance, let me know. I’m just enjoying seeing how it works for me.
Mary

Thanks, Mary. I’m considering ways to pair it somehow with the “Outside Card” as alpha-and-omega book-ends to the reading. It isn’t really an outcome card as such since it’s always the same (everything comes to naught in the end?). It’s more like “pulling the plug” on further development. If the Outcome Card is in the “house” of the Fool, maybe something can be made of the “house” the Fool is in by cross-linking the meanings like in Lenormand; the Fool would become another kind of “pointer” that flags not another card in the series but the final resting place of the matter as an environment associated with its “house.”

parsifalswheeldivination,
I think it would depend entirely on the specific reading. Someone just got the Fool as the Outside Card. While she could modify her question and try again (she had asked a yes/no question, which doesn’t work well for this kind of spread) or it could be saying to trust her intuition.

I’d say, let your intuition tell you each time you use the spread how best to approach it. If the spread works for you, you’ll eventually develop your own relationship with it.